Alcohol Drug Information

What Is Alcohol?

Alcohol is often not thought of as a drug - largely because its use is common for both religious and social purposes in most parts of the world. It is a drug, however, and compulsive drinking in excess has become one of modern society's most serious problems. The beverage alcohol (scientifically known as ethyl alcohol, or ethanol) is produced by fermenting or distilling various fruits, vegetables, or grains. Ethyl alcohol itself is a clear, colorless liquid. Alcoholic beverages get their distinctive colors from the diluents, additives, and by-products of fermentation.

Alcohol is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream by the small intestine and less rapidly by the stomach and colon. In proportion to its concentration in the bloodstream, alcohol decreases activity in parts of the brain and spinal cord. The drinker's blood alcohol concentration depends on:

• the amount consumed in a given time
• the drinker's size, sex, body build, and metabolism
• the type and amount of food in the stomach.

Once the alcohol has passed from the digestive system into the bloodstream, no food or beverage can slow or interfere with its effects. However in some cases, fruit sugar can shorten the duration of alcohol's effect by speeding up its elimination from the blood.

In the average adult, the rate of metabolism is about 8.5 g of alcohol per hour (i.e. about two-thirds of a regular beer or about 30 mL of spirits an hour). This rate is only a general guideline and can vary dramatically among individuals, depending on such diverse factors as usual amounts of drinking, physique, sex, liver size and genetic factors.

Alcohol affects people differently, depending on their size, sex, body build, and metabolism. General effects are a feeling of warmth, flushed skin, impaired judgment, decreased inhibitions, muscular incoordination, slurred speech and memory and comprehension loss. In states of extreme intoxication, vomiting is likely to occur, possibly accompanied by incontinence, poor respiration, a fall in blood pressure, and in cases of severe alcohol poisoning, coma and death.

Drinking heavily over a short period of time usually results in a "hangover" - headache, nausea, shakiness, and sometimes vomiting, beginning from 8 to 12 hours later. A hangover is due partly to poisoning by alcohol and other components of the drink, and partly to the body's reaction to withdrawal from alcohol.

Combining alcohol with other drugs can make the effects of these other drugs much stronger and more dangerous. Many accidental deaths have occurred after people have used alcohol combined with other drugs. Cannabis, tranquillizers, barbiturates and other sleeping pills, or antihistamines (in cold, cough, and allergy remedies) should not be taken with alcohol. Even a small amount of alcohol with any of these drugs can seriously impair a person's ability to drive a car.

People who drink on a regular basis become tolerant to many of the unpleasant effects of alcohol, and thus are able to drink more before suffering these effects. Yet even with increased consumption, many such drinkers don't appear intoxicated. Because they continue to work and socialize reasonably well, their deteriorating physical condition may go unrecognized by others until severe damage develops - or until they are hospitalized for other reasons and suddenly experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Psychological dependence on alcohol may occur with regular use of even relatively moderate daily amounts. It may also occur in people who consume alcohol only under certain conditions, such as before and during social occasions. This form of dependence refers to a craving for alcohol's psychological effects, although not necessarily in amounts that produce serious intoxication. For psychologically dependent drinkers, the lack of alcohol tends to make them anxious and, in some cases, panicky.

Long term alcohol abuse poses a variety of health risks, such as liver damage and an increased risk for heart disease. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome may result from a pregnant woman's drinking alcohol; this condition causes facial abnormalities in the child, as well as growth retardation and brain damage, which often is manifested by intellectual difficulties or behavioral problems.

When does casual consumption of alcohol turn to dependency drinking and finally to biochemically-controlled drinking? The answer is that even most alcohol addicts themselves don't know when they became addicted to alcohol. Alcohol is the most sinister of drugs, one that draws a thin, usually imperceptible line between social use and addictive use. Alcoholic addicts rely on alcohol as a key component of their personality - without a drink, they simply cannot "be themselves."

Narconon helps people end their alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction through mind/body alcohol abuse treatment programs. Our alcohol treatment programs and alcohol abuse rehabilitation strategies give our clients all the tools they need to handle an addiction that's restricting their lives and preventing them from reaching their full potential. Most alcohol rehabilitation programs have a 15-20% success rate. The Narconon alcohol treatment program has a 70% success rate, meaning most of its graduates are still substance-free two years out of its recovery program.

Our alcohol abuse treatment programs are not only focused on withdrawal from all forms of drinking, but also, through a holistic healing process, on helping others escape all forms of substitute addictions. This process frees the body from the alcohol toxins that build up in the liver, and restores biochemical equilibrium to the whole body. At the end of the program, a patient's body will no longer depend on alcohol - or any other controlled substance to regulate itself. The Narconon alcohol rehabilitation program also gives patients the mental tools and mental balance to recover from alcohol abuse. With a healthfully restored mental equilibrium, graduates are able to take conscious control of their lives and goals and live purposefully. By consciously controlling the direction of their life, patients thus stop alcohol use naturally, purposefully, permanently, and without fear.

Because alcohol addiction was a person's way of inducing one or more of physical, mental and emotional relaxation, ease, and even escapism, at Narconon we educate clients about the biology of alcohol abuse and teach them to view their alcohol addiction as a biochemical process that must be and can be regulated. Narconon's scientifically proven withdrawal proccess, coupled with emotional counseling and the reformation of the body's biochemical process, creates a thorough mind/body detoxification approach that frees people from alcohol addiction, alcohol abuse, and all the consequences of addiction that ultimately prevent them back from true happiness.

Source: Narconon Alcohol Information